REVIEW: 4183 The Mill

[Rumble Strike]

This is my first review of a new set on Eurobricks, I hope you enjoy it.

The Basics:

Set Number: 4183

Set Name: The Mill

Theme: Pirates of the Caribbean

Sub-Theme: Dead Man's Chest

Release Date: April 2011

Pieces: 365

Minifigs: 4

Price: £40.99 UK

From the Lego Shop@Home description:

Capture the key to the Dead Man’s Chest!

The battle is raging for the key to the Dead Man’s Chest! Captain Jack Sparrow, Will Turner and Admiral Norrington are dueling to the death when the mill wheel suddenly shakes loose and sends the sword fight spinning out of control! Stay on your feet and clench control of that key before Hadras flees back to the Flying Dutchman with it!

The Box:

The boxes for the Pirates of the Caribbean line are a lot smaller than previous licenced sets and do struggle to live up to their hefty price tag, however The Mill does have a box that shows off the features nicely.

In the Box:

The set is divided into four numbered bags with two instruction booklets and a poster showing a video-game-esque rendering of the set. The booklets, poster and sticker sheet were baggied up with a piece of cardboard to protect them from being crumpled.

There was no playing card with my set, which did surprise me. Perhaps they did not include one for this price point.

[Later note from comments below] It has been pointed out that only the sets taken from the upcoming "On Stranger Tides" film have the playing cards, it's not a price point issue at all. It's a shame that all sets in the line don't come with a card though. This would have been Norrington's time to shine! Although with the Admiral's luck, Hadras would have been chosen! He's on the side of the box, after all...

Here's a shot of all the pieces together, torn from the safety and comfort of the numbered bags.

Minifigs:

The Mill contains four absolutely stunning minifigures.

The level of detailing is incredible and there is leg and back printing and alternate heads for all figures except Will, who doesn't get leg printing.

Close ups:

Captain Jack Sparrow appears in every set, but that's not too bad as his LEGO representation is a real winner. The difference for this version is that he comes with a big key, used to open the titular Dead Man's Chest which holds the heart of Davy Jones.

Will Turner is a pivotal character in the 3 POTC films, and this is a good representation of him. Love the hairpiece and the shirt detailing! He is also available in set 4182 Cannibal Escape.

Admiral James Norrington vies for the affections of Elizabeth Swann along with Will. Here, at this stage of the film he is a desperate pirate, but still showing off some very stylish (albeit slightly ragged) threads. Love the detail on the print! He uses Dastan's hairpiece from Prince of Persia, which is a reasonable reuse. The expression on his face is perfect, so hangdog. It's heartbreaking to see a LEGO figure so downcast. Definitely my favourite of the four. He is exclusive to this set.

Hadras is one of Davy Jones' mutated crew, due to his long service of the Flying Dutchman he is now more sea creature than human. His LEGO representation has tons of detail, and he's so cute! The shell piece on the head has been sculpted really well, and it even features printing! It is great to see one of Davy Jones' henchmen, would love to see more in future waves as I thought they were all visually very interesting. At the moment though, Hadras ought to be able to hang out with some of the Atlantis minifigs as he'd fit in well with those. Hadras is exclusive to this set.

Parts of Interest:

I found more as I was making the set, but these are all pretty cool. You get two copies of the key, and they are attached to a sprue like the Atlantis flippers or the gold coins are.

Here's a special shot of what's in the chest:

Lovely printing on the heart, the idea well executed by the designers.

The Build:

First up you make the figures and Mill itself using bags 1-3, then the wheel gets to be made using bag 4.

It's a nice build, easy to do but the wheel gets a bit repetitive because of the number of sections you have to build.

You have to fold up the wheel around the central piece and slot the poles into the holes in the round part. This was actually a fun part of the build after building so many slat pieces.

The part I found hardest was attaching the rope to the bell at one end and the handle at the other. Sausage fingers!

It's a wee bit smaller than I'd like, especially at the price point, but it does look good.

These were the extra pieces:

See the next post for lots of action shots and a final summary.

[edit] Changed pics to Flickr, added some more descriptive text.

[legojazzbricks]

great review im loveing the potc theme some of these sets are fantastic

thanks

legojazzbricks

[Rumble Strike]

The Mill allows you to do a recreation of the fantastic fight scene when everyone is trying to get their hands on the Dead Man's Chest, and the key that opens it.

First up, the fight and chase in the Mill itself:

It's a bit cramped, as the structure obviously isn't as big as the one in the film, but it is playable. Jack can use the rope holding up the bell to launch himself upwards. This play feature isn't great as there is too much slack in the line, but it does the job adequately:

The wheel can be knocked off its rest and roll off:

Push down on the lever to raise the wheel off its mooring:

Weeeeee! The wheel gains a lot of momentum and will travel quite a long way before stopping.

This adds so much fun and play value as the fight on the wheel was one of the best parts of the film. However if you have anyone on top of it before you launch they will fall off when you launch it, so beware!

Norrington and Will duel on the top of the wheel! However Jack chases up to them and manages to swipe the key:

But wait, because they're fighting each other, Hadras now has the Dead Man's Chest!

Overall:

This is a set featuring great minifigures and a fun playset. The price is high, but as a licensed set, it's to be expected. However I think the level of detail the figures have make up for it slightly, as they are just gorgeous. The set contains lots of the same parts to build the wheel,and I guess the Mill parts perhaps aren't too exciting to all you Castle enthusiasts who have already built lots of grey towers, but this set does have some nice bonus stuff like the bottle and the heart of Davy Jones, as well as the key to the chest.

The Mill itself is quite small, but does have some real playablity with the wheel. I certainly had a lot of fun posing the figures and recreating the fight scene from the film whilst taking the pictures for the review. I think this is a license that fits extremely well into LEGO form and it should be a big success.

So, to put all the above into number form, and using Cloney's rating areas as a guide:

Parts: 7/10 - Mainly grey, brown and tan, some excellent new pieces.

Minifigures: 10/10 - Four absolutely superb minifigs, two of which are exclusive to the set.

Design: 8/10 - A good design for the piece count and price point. It is a good representation of the scene from the film.

Price: 6/10 - No beating around the bush here, it's expensive for what you get.

Playability: 9/10 - A very playable set.

Overall: 8/10

Thank you for reading! Also see my full Flickr image gallery.

[edit] Changed pic locations to Flickr and added in full ratings

Edited April 24, 2011 by Rumble Strike

[Big Cam]

Another review done. Great work, this is one of my favorite sets of the series!

It'll be on out blog in the next day, with so many reviews, we actually are all booked up for a while.

[bloggedcp][/bloggedcp]

[Blackicep8ntball]

Nice review, Rumble - I'd been hoping to see a review of this set. I agree with you: nice figs, a little small for the price. And... my eternal gripe: Too bad it has so many (really, any) stickers.

Edited April 22, 2011 by Blackicep8ntball

[prateek]

Great review. This is one of the best sets in the line. I think it could be bigger, but hey, what can you do?

[sok117]

I think it could be bigger, but hey, what can you do?

mod it?

I think it's a toss up betwen which pirate set I get, this one or cannibal escape. I still don't know.

[Keybobs]

Brilliant review, I'm loving the re-run of the film in there, good job, very entertaining I'm loving that wheel and the Bell. a Must by I'd say.

[Blackknight112]

Thanks for the review. This set is my favorite potc set so far. The only letdown is the price.

[lightningtiger]

Thanks 'Rumble Strike' for this review, oh I'm going to be broke this year now....gee what are my chances of this being available in Oz before the 1st of May (my son Zac's 11th Birthday) ?

The play features and minifigs are what sells the set though the tower walls are just panel built....what else is new for Lego....it's called short cuts !

In any case it's a cool set and really can't wait to bring this and the rest of POTC in to our collection.

Brick On everyone on the high seas !

[Gregorovich]

Thanks for the review! This set is pretty good, but it's far too expensive. The bell and the wheel are great. The minifigs are also very well designed, Hadras in particular. I'm happy to see the bottle and a fish in this set, but why are they there? Is someone living in the tower ? Anyway, thanks again for the review.

[Admiral Croissant]

Thanks for the review.

This set has a lot of great parts which feature in almost all of the other sets as well, like the bucket, the bottle and the compass.

But the special things of this MOC are awesome as well, like Hadras his shell, Norrington and the wheel of course.

I think this set is also very useful for MOCing so I would have given it 4 out of 5. The price is a bad point again.

[Donut]

Thanks for the review. This looks like a very fun set with some interesting pieces most notably, the heart and Hadras's shell head. Also, the water wheel has a striking resemblance to something the Trolls once engineered.

[Masked Builder]

One of the cooler sets! I'm really liking this set for all of those nice figures. Nice work on representing the wheel functions.

[WesternOutlaw]

I've added a poll so our Pirate fans can rate this set.

[Ceroknight]

Thank you for the review!

Really like that shell head piece

[XimenaPaulina]

Very good job for your first review RS! As for the set, it looks good with all the playable features incorporated in it, but it just doesn't visually appeal to me unlike the other sets. I'd rate this one average.

[Santhor]

I'm not sure if someone has already noticed this, but it seems that only "On Stranger Tides" sets come with character cards. Anyway, thanks for the review. I got this set today, and it looks great!

-Santhor

[Harrypotterfreak]

First, i must say: GREAT review!!!! Also, you r like, my new best friend: SAUSAGE FINGERS!!! my family and i joke about that all the time with my huge fingers!!!!

[KristofBD]

Thanks for this great review! I think you really showed all the up- and downsides of the sets very accurately. To me the most appealing things about the set are the Admiral Norrington fig (just gorgeous! ) and the high number of dark tan pieces.

I was very skeptical about the interior and the patchiness of the building when I saw the first pictures of it. I'm more convinced about the details: they're good enough for a set like this, but I still think the building looks too patchy. Even for a ruined mill I find it a bit lacking. Overall I find this one of the weakest in the PoTC line, but the figs and the parts selection still make it a fairly good set.

[Derfel Cadarn]

Great review! Everyone was bashing this set when the first pics were shown, but its not that bad. Just pricey like the rest. Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed the excellent quality of the boxes? These are the first Lego sets ive bought where ive really liked the boxes. They feel and look much better quality then other lines.

[Mr_Malfoy]

Nice job! This was the first PotC set I ever bought, and you did it justice, in my opinion.

[Canada_7]

This was the other POTC set I preordered other than QAR. Other than the QAR I was trying to decide between this set and London Escape as to which one I should get; ended up choosing The Mill over London Escape because it was a bit cheaper and something about it with the wheel made it more appealing over the latter. Yes it does look on the small side but after looking at the reviews between this and London Escape, I think I made the correct decision to go with this set.

[colethegeek]

Thanks for the review! I love the shell head piece (and Davy Jones' heart). Still debating whether those elements are worth getting the set for...

I have noticed, though, that the only sets that come with the card are the sets related to POTC: On Stranger Tides. I didn't get one in The Cannibal Escape, but did in both The Captain's Cabin and Fountain of Youth.

[Rumble Strike]

Thanks for all your positive comments regarding my review, I am really pleased it's been so well received as I have spent a long time since I joined in November looking at all the lovely reviews on Eurobricks. To be frontpaged here and on Classic-Pirates is very exciting! Also thank you to The Brickster for adding the poll.

I am pleased with how my photos came out and I hope it comes across how much fun I was having in taking them.

Regarding the lack of playing card, thanks Santhor and colethegeek, I hadn't noticed it was just for On Stranger Tides sets. A shame. I have amended the review with a note to that effect as well as adding in more descriptive text and a proper ratings system.

Canada 7, I got the London Escape along with this set as in the UK TRU was doing a 3 for 2 offer. I also got the X-Wing from Star Wars as it was closer in price to the two POTC sets I got. I think I wanted The Mill more simply because I'd seen the film that it was relating to. With the reviews of the On Stranger Tides sets some of the play features are not clear as to what they are for or why they appear, at least until we get to see the films.

Edited April 24, 2011 by Rumble Strike